APPEAL 



TO THE PEOPLE OF THE 



NORTHERN AND EASTERN STATES, 



ON THE SUBJECT OF 



NEGRO SLAVERY 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY A SOUTH CAROLINIAN, 



I like a clamour, when (here has been an ootrage : The fire-bell at midnight breaks you^ 
sleep, but saves you from being burned- 

Burke. 



NEW. YORK: 
1834* 



AN APPEAL, &c. 



The open denunciations from abroad, and the foul insinuations at 
home, on the subject of negro slavery in South Carolina, persuade us 
that this appeal will find sufficient apology for its present appearance. 
Every one must perceive, that the efforts which the Abolitionists are 
making, have for their ultimate object, the total destruction of our slave 
institutions. They have already carried their purpose so far, as to 
create a degree of disaffection between the people of the Pforth and 
South, which has caused many to tremble for the permanence of the 
Union. ' Such has been their improvident conduct, that, even in their 
own states, they haye raised up an excitement agamst themselves, which 
has but recently required military interference for their protection. 
From their flagitious efforts, commenced in the press and carried to the 
pulpit, the grossest slanders have been circulated against the southern 
slaveholder. It sometimes happens, from a want of proper informa- 
tion easily got at, that these errors, from frequent repetition, are at 
length considered sober truths ; and the people, upon whom their de- 
nunciations are so freely bestowed, necessarily become the objects of 
bitter and undeserved reproach. Under such a state of things, there 
should be no suppression of the truth ; and he who does so, when in 
his power to unfold it, violates the fulfilment of his positive duties to 
society not less than to his own conscience. Unwilling, therefore, that 
any such neglect should be chargeable to us, however humble the 
ability with which we come to the task, we beg leave to propose to our 
fellow citizens of the non-slaveholding states, the consideration of a few 
leading propositions, which we hold absolutely essential to a fair con- 
sideration of the subject. 

I. That, a system of slavery has existed in every age of the world — 
was established in the Old, and sanctioned in the New Testament. 

II. That, the system was forced upon South Carolina by the trade 
of Great Britain and of the Northern and Eastern States. 



III. That, tho Carolina slave, at this time, enjoys most of the civil 
and religious immunities of his master, 

IV. That, no plan yet devised, can better his present condition. 
And now for these several prei^ositions — the first in order. 

That slavery has existed from the earliest ages of the world, is ap, 
parent on ev ny page of its history. The Mosaic law, as far back as 
the time of Abraham, gave it the fullest sanction. We find, with that 
patriarch, no less than three hundred and eighty slaves born in his own 
household.* These he trained to arms, and with them, pursued the 
four kings, w ho had taken captivo his brother. Having conquered 
thcjii, we see his right of reducing their subjects to slavery distinctly 
recQgnised — " and the king of Sodom said unto Abraham, give me 
the persons, and take the goods to thyself, "f Proceed further in the 
Mosaic history, and we hear Abraham's servant boastfully exclaiming — 
" the Lord hath blest my master greatly ; and he is become great, 
and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and 
men-servants and maidservants, and camels and asses.":}: To prove 
too, that, such property was considered then, as now, absolute in the 
master — of which he could dispose as he pleased— we find Abimeleck 
making a free-gift offering, unto Abraham, oi men-servants and muid, 
servants, in tlie same class with sheep and oxen. Any one, who 
w^ill take the trouble to examine for himself, will discover, that, among 
the Hebrews, slavery, in many instances, was considered a privilege 
conferred on the vanquished, which saved him from an ignominious 
death. Thus, in Deut. xx. 14, and in Deut. xxi. 21, every male 
child was smote with the sword. In the war with the Midianites, 
every male, and all the women, except the virgins, (who were made 
slaves out of mercy,) underwent a like fate. War was undoubtedly 
the first source from whence the Hebrews leariicd to acquire this 
species of property. At a very remote period, Nimrod, in becoming a 
hunter of men, had taught tliom the practice. In process of time they 
extended their right to purchase ; a right which was regulated by a 
complete system of laws, in which the Hebrew himself could pass 
away his freedom by a deed Of bargain and sale. Thus, a man could 
sell himself through poverty, § a case which according to the com- 
mentators, very frequently occurred; a father could sell his children ;|| 
51 cretlitor could sell his debtor to hquidate the debt ;ir and a thief, 



* Cen. xiv. 14. f Gen. xiv. 21. J Gen. xxiv. 35. 

{ Lpv, xxy. 39, |l Ex, xxi. 7, H 2 Kings, iv, 1. 4, 



who could not pay the fine 'imposed upon hiin, could be sold by the 
authorities to satisfy the sum.* To show, too, to what an illimitable 
extent they carried this right, Machielis, in his able commentary on the 
laws of Moses, states, that in the war with the Midianites, the twelve 
thousand men, who had made the campaign, received fifteen thousand 
nine hundred and sixty-eight virgins ; the rest of the Israelites, in number 
almost six hundred thousand, received fifteen thousand six hundred 
and eighty; Eleazar the priest, thirty-two; and the adult Levites, 
who amounted to more than eight thousand, received three hundred 
and twenty. " These," says he, " were all sold at auction, and became 
the absolute property of the purchaser, who could do with them, and 
their offspring, whatever he pleased." 

Having thus briefly referred, to a few of the modes, in which slaves 
were acquired among the Hebrews, let us see how the Mosaic law 
permitted them to be treated. They could be beat to such an ex- 
tent, that, unless death followed under the immediate infliction, the 
master was secure from punishment.f If, however, the victim died 
under the blows, the murderer was punished in the discretion of the 
magistrate. The lawgiver, no doubt, framed these laws with the na- 
tural presumption, such being the interest of the master in his property, 
that its value alone would sufficiently insure his clemency — for, as he 
very briefly and quaintly expresses it, " he (the slave) is his money." 
With a few exceptions, the Hebrew slave was completely at his mas- 
ter's mercy — his life, which was regarded in the careless manner al- 
ready noticed, was all that the law protected. It is true, a stroke, 
which lost him an eye or a tooth, gained him his freedom ; but this was 
of.such rare occurrence, that the statute which enacted it may almost 
be said to have been a dead letter. 

'< With regard to the assertion," says Professor- Dew, " that slavery 
is against the spirit of Christianity, we are ready to admit the general 
assertion, but deny most positively, that there is any thing in the Old 
or New Testament, which would go to show that the system, when 
once introduced, ought at all events to be abrogated, or that the mas- 
ter commits any offence in holding slaves. The children of Israel 
themselves were slaveholders, and were not condemned for it. All 
the patriarchs themselves were slaveholders. Abraham had more 
than three hundred ; Isaac had a great store of them ; and even the 
patient Job himself, had ^ a very great household.'' When the children 



Ex. xxii. 3, 4, 5. f Ex. xxi. 21. 



gf Israel conquered the land of CanaarK, tiiey made one whole tribe 
♦ hewers of wood and drawers of water ;' and they were at that very 
time under the special guidance of Jehovah ; they were permitted ex- 
pressly to purchase slaves of tlic heathens, and keep them as an inhe- 
ritance for their posterity; and even the children of Israel might be 
enslaved for six years. When we turn, too, to the New Testament, 
we find not one single passage at all calculated to disturb the conscience 
of the slaveholder. No one can read it without seeing and admiring, 
that the meek and humble Saviour of the world in no ijistance meddled 
with the established institutions of mankind ; he came to save a fallen 
world, and not to excite the black passions of men, and array them in 
deadly hostility against each other; From no one did he turn away ; 
his plan was offered alike to all — to the monarch and the subject, the 
rich and the poor, the master and the slave. He was born in the Ro- 
man world — a world in which the most galling slavery existed, a thou- 
sand times more cruel than the slavery in our own country ; and yet 
he nowhere encourages insurrection — nowhere fosters discontent ; but 
exhorts always to implicit obedience and fidelity. What a rebuke 
does the practice of the Redeemer of mankind imply upon some of his 
nominal disciples of the day, who seek to destroy the contentnient of 
the slaves, to rouse their most deadly passions, to break up the deep 
foundations of society, and to lead on to a night of darkness and con- 
fiision ! * Let every man,' says Paul, ' abide in the same calling 
wherein he is called.'* Again, * Let as many servants as are under 
the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name 
of God and his doctrines be not blasphemed ; and they that have be- 
lieving masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethl-en ; 
but rather do' them service, because they are faithful and beloved par- 
takers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. 'f Servants- are 
even command(;d to be faithful and obedient to unkind masters. < Ser- 
vants,' says St. Peter, ' be subject to your masters with all fear ; not 
only to the good and gentle, but to the froward. For what glory is it 
if when ye shall be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently ; but if 
when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
with God.'t These and many other passages in the New Testament, 
most convincingly prove that slavery in the Roman world was no- 
where charged as fault or crime upon the holder, and every where is 
the most implicit obedience enjoined. "§ 



* 1 Corinthians, vii. 20, 21. f 1 Tim. vi. 1,2. 

t 1 Peter, ii. IC, 20. { Political Register, vol. 2. p. 820. 



Leaving tlie Jews, we trace the existence of slavery throughout 
Chaldea, Egypt, and Arabia, until we find it pervading the better part 
of the globe. Homer, who makes frequent allusion to the subject, 
causes Hector, in the following langueige, to bewail the hard fate of 
Andromache, should she fall into the hands of the enemy. 

^" No dire presage so wounds my mind ; 

My mother's death, the ruin of my kind, 
Not Priam's hoary hairs defil'd with gore ; 
Not all my brothers, gasping on the shore, 
As thine, Andromache ! Thy grief 1 dread ; — 
I see thee trembling, weeping, captive led : 
In Argivc looms our battles to design, 
And woes, of which so large a part was thine : 
To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring 
The weight of waters from Hyperia's spring. 
There, while you groan beneath the load of life. 
They cry, ' Behold the mighty Hector's wife.' " 

Pope's Illiadf VL 

At a later period of Grecian history, we are told that Philip made 
slaves of all the Thcbans whom he conquered ; and Alexander, fol- 
lowing the example of his father, did the same. The degraded condi- 
tion of the Helots is so familiar to every reader, as scarce to demand a 
notice here. They were considered as mere things, appended to the 
soil ; and whenever they became too numerous for the safety of their 
Spartan masters, they were put to death without scruple, as so many wild 
beasts. Athenseus* tells us that when the free population of Athens 
was only 21,000, its slaves amounted to 400,000; and that the small 
island of Egina, alone, contamed as many as 470,000 — a number 
nearly twice as great as contauied in the entire state of South Carolina. 
Nor was the system of slavery carried on to a less extent in Rome. 
Many a Roman master owned as many as 10,000 slaves. In the war 
with the Hetrurians, Camillus made slaves of all the prisoners taken ; 
and Fabius, when he subdued Tarentum, reduced all of its mhabitants 
to servitude. Coriolanus did not scruple to make slaves of his own 
countrymen, and Julius Csesai', at the close of one campaign, sold as 
many as 50,000 captives. " These," says Taylor, " lived in a much 
worse condition than any cattle whatever. They had no head in the 
state — no name, title, or register. They were not capable of being 



Cooper's Justinian, page 412. 



8 

injured : nor could they take by purchase or descent ; they had no 
heirs, and therefore could make no will : exclusive of what was called 
their peculum, whatever they acquired was their master's. They 
could neither plead nor be pleaded for; but were excluded from all 
civil concern whatsoever^"* In short, they were entitled" to none of 
the privileges of the Republic — tlicy were considered as mere machines ; 
could be tortured for evidence, and put to death at the will of the master ; 
and by a law of the Twelve Tables, any creditor could sell his debtor, 
or put him to death. Cicero tells us, that they .were continually chained 
at the doors of their masters, to give admittance to the visiter.f And 
Seneca, .who lived at a much later period, says, that the neighbours, 
about the third hour of the night, hear the noise of whips and lashes, 
and the shrieks and agonies of expiring nature ; and, on uiquiring, they 
find it is some rtiaster takmg an account of the day's labour, and giving 
to refractory slaves due discipline and correction. If one of these un- 
happy creatures attempted escape, he was branded on the forehead mth 
a red-hot iron; and if a master was found murdered, his slaves were, 
all of them, instantly put to death. As if this list of barbarities could 
find no end, we read of one Vedius Pollio, who, in the refined age of 
Augustus, when the Christian religion had been already promulgated, 
threw, such of his slaves as offended him, into his fish-ponds, to fatten 
his lampreys. At more subsequent periods, the Roman slave was 
better treated ; but his servitude was at no time totally abolished, or 
even favoured with any thing like the degree of indulgence with which 
he is considered by the laws and people of the South. 

Among the ancient Germans, Tacitus tells us, that a species of 
slavery existed, which, when acquired, gave the master a complete 
control over the life and services of the slave. " What is extraordi- 
nary," says he, " they play at dice, when sober, as serious business ; 
and that, with such a desperate venture of gain or loss, that, when 
every thing else is gone, they set their liberties and persons on the last 
throw. The loser goes into voluntary servitude ; and though young 
arid strong, patiently suffers himself to be bound and sold. The slaves 
thus acquired are exchanged in commerce, or put to death, that the 
winner may get rid of the scandal of his victory.:): 

But it is among the Africans themselves, that slavery has always 
existed in its most painful features. Carthage was full of slaves ; and 



* Taylor's Civil Law, p. 429. f Div. 1 Lib. "26. 

I Aikin's Tac. De Mos. Ger. p. 73. 



as far back as the time of Terence, who introduces an ^thiopean slave 
into his play of the Eunuch, Africa "was spoiled of its sons."* In- 
deed, from the earliest records of this ill-fated country, the slave system 
seems to have been carried on in a manner the most intolerable to 
humanity. In a letter to George III. in 1789, the Emperor of Dahomey 
asserted, that " he could lead 500,000 armed men into the field, that 
being the pursuit to which all his subjects were bred, and the women 
only staying at home to plant and manure the earth. He had himself 
fought two hundred and nine battles, with great reputation and success, 
and had conquered the great King of Ardali. The King's head was to 
this day preserved with the flesh and hair; the heads of his generals 
were distinguished by being placed on each side of the doors of their 
Fetiches ; with the heads of the inferior officers they paved the spaces 
before the' doors," and the heads of the common soldiers formed a sort 
of fringe or out-work round the walls of the palace. Since the war, he 
had experienced the greatest good fortune, and he hoped in good time 
to be able to complete the out walls of all his great houses, to the 
number of seven, in the same manner, "f From accounts, such as these, 
it is manifest that the slave trade, however iniquitous in its principles, 
has, in most instances, meliorated the condition of the African captive, 
by taking him into servitude, when death, or the most excruciatino- tor- 
ments, would have been otherwise his portion. 

Having thus shown, we think conclusively, that slavery has existed, 
in some state or other, in most parts of the world — that it found its 
establishment in the Old Testament, and its recognition and sanction in 
the New — and having sufficiently dwelt upon the horrible nature and 
character of its trade in all past periods, and of its many more revolting 
alternatives, we shall now proceed, under our second proposition, to 
show that the system of slavery was forced upon South Carolina by 
the trade of Great Britain and the Northern and Eastern states. 

It is immaterial to our argument, to enter into the question, whether" 
we hold our slaves by a just or an unjust tenure. It is sufficient for our 
purpose that we find them among us. No people have more regretted 
the existence of such a condition of things than the people of Carolina. 
The evil has been forced upon us, not by ourselves, but by foreigners 
■ — by Europeans generally, and by our Northern and Eastern brethren, 
in particular. The slave trade was for the first time commenced by 
the Genoese traders, under a patent from Charles V. It must be re- 
collected, too, that before either of the North American colonies were 



Brit, Enc. Art. Slavery. + Pol. Reg. vol. 2, p. 775. 



10 

planted, England had already given sanction to the system by the 
le<Tal incorporation of a Society for that purpose. As soon as her 
colonics became settled, she declared, by parliamentary enactment, that, 
to supply them witi'i slaves, was not only necessary to their prosperity, 
but essentially beneficial to her own interests. South Carolina was 
among tlie very first to oppose tiiis declaration. Her resistance brought 
out, on the part of the mother country, an order forbidding all Gover. 
Dors, under the severest penalty, to countenance any law which should 
have for its object the destruction of the slave trade. The same oppo- 
sition was offered by other of the colonies; and when, as late as 1774, 
an attempt was made in the island of Jamaica to put an end to the 
system, tlie answer was — that " the people of Great Britain could not 
allow tlic colonies to check or discourage, in any degree, a traffic ao 
beneficial to tlie nation."* 

It surely should be no subject of wonder, that the same spirit of 
commercial avarice, in time, seized upon the merchants of our own 
country. The great success attending the English trader, in this 
market, induced many speculators, North and East, soon after the 
revolution, to engage in a pursuit promising to be so profitable. By 
their united operations, in the short period between the years 1804 and 
1807, no less than 39,075 slaves were imported into South Carolina. 
Of this number, 18,013 were brought in American vessels ; Charleston 
and its vicinity importing only 2000. " Sliowing," says Judge Smith, 
in a sarcasm strictly merited, but which we now adopt in no unkind 
spirit, " that, when a profitable market can be .found, they (the people 
of the Northern and Eastern states) can sell human fleSh with as easy 
a conscience as any other article, "f In addition to these facts, it is 
well known to all acquainted with the Southern slave market, tliat its 
demands have been supplied, in no inconsiderable degree, by slaves 
sold by tl:eir masters from tlie North and East, to escape tlie emanci- 
patory laws of tiiose regions. But enough has been said to establish 
our position. Were it necessary we could go into details which 
would prove that South Caroluia, in Congress as well as in her colonial 
legislature^, has always been the foremost to vote against the slave 
trade ; and that, finally, through her endeavours, its arrest wassmainly 
effected on the part of the United Slates. 

Passing to our third proposition, we shall now endeavour to show 
that the Carolina slave, at this time, enjoys most of the civil and reli- 
gious immunities of his master. 

* See Barham's History of the Abolition of Slavery ; also Appendix 1. 
] Speech on the Misso'iri question. 



11 

Virtually, the slave in Carolina possesses most of the civil freedom of 
the white man. Civil freedom there, as it is recognised all over the 
world, is nothing more than the protection of life, hmb, reputation, and 
property. The Carolina master enjoys these advantages, and no more ; 
while the slave, with a k\v exceptions, and those in his favour, has ail 
these rights secured likewise to himself. Against him, as agamst his 
master, you cannot make an assault with impunity. If you take his 
life, yours must pay the forfeit — if he takes yours, like you, he has 
the benefit of a regular form of trial by sworn freeholders, who, from 
the fact of their being, in most cases, the owners of slaves themselves, 
are generally rather inclined to evade the law, than to vindicate its 
exactions. In all criminal prosecutions against him, his master, or 
guardian, by a simple plea, can have him either immediately brought 
to trial, or can traverse l)is case until all excitement against him shall 
have subsided. Upon trial, his accusers must confront him ; and he is 
entitled to compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour. 
He can have the ablest counsel employed in his behalf, with a court if 
at all partial, favourably so, from the reasons already urged in this 
particular. If found guilty, he has the right of appeal, can be reprieved, 
and finally pardoned. When any one assails his reputation, and as- 
perses his character for honesty and faithfulness, (and this of itself 
should speak volumes m reply to those who regard and denounce the 
southern slave-holder as a ruthless tyrant,) his master, or guardian, 
may bring an action for damages, and no judge or jury in the country 
dare refuse to award them. Indeed, such is the humanity of public 
feeling in his behalf, that out of the many cases of this nature in our 
reports, there is not one, where, for an assault against him, the damages 
have not been greater than in the instance of the free white man. 
Does any one steal from him, whether white or black, the offender is 
made amenable to the laws, and receives, according to the circum- 
stances, the full punishment for felony. It is true, the slave cannot, 
upon the stand of justice, bear witness against the white man ; nor can 
he of himself bring his claim for redress into court; but in all instances, 
his master, or his guardian, can do so for him ; and we say it, without 
the least fear of contradiction, that the instance is not known in the 
state of South Carolina, in which, upon proper provocation or neces- 
sity, they have ever failed to do so.- To go even farther, such is the 
sensitiveness with which the Carolina master views every violation of the 
rights of his slave, that the cases are numerous, where, for this cause 
alone, the severest disputes have taken place, as well in court as out 
of it, between their proprietors. Indeed, public opinion there, has al- 



\ 



12 

most made it a general rule of honour, that any interference with the 
privileges of the slave in the faithful exercises of his duties, or of his 
own rights, on the part of others, must be considered an indignity to the 
master, which should be as quickly resented as if directly put upon 
himself. 

Nor, in a political point of view, is the condition of the slave so de- 
ficient in advantages and privilege, or so irksome to his pride and feel- 
ings, as some would make it out. In name, we must admit, that he is 
deprived of his suffrage. But if this right means (as it undoubtedly 
does) that which secures him a representation, then the slave has little 
of which to complain. Substantially, he is represented as much as his 
master ; for the interest of the proprietor is emphatically that interest 
which best provides for the well-being of the subordinate. Every 
page of local legislation in that state provesithe truth of this remark. 

As regards his personal rights, the law hal''not left him unprotected. 
While it compels the master to furnish him with proper food, shelter, 
and clothing, it forbids tliat he shall be worked over fourteen hours out 
of the twenty-four ; and while defining stiHfctly what the punishment 
shall be, affixes its penalty on all excess in its exercise. In addition 
to these statutory provisions, the feelings of the master, togetlier with, 
and powerfully acted upon by, public ojflnion, in a great degree, aids 
the kindly intentions of the law. Thus, -while in Europe, whole con>- 
munities have perished from famme and^dlsease, neglected, and without 
concern, public or private, among the Southern slave population even 
the apprehension of theee influences has never been known. In health 
they are always provided with clothing and all necessary and healthy, 
though plain, food. In sickness, the obvious interest of the master impels 
him to procure for them the best medical attendance; which, indeed, in 
most plantations, is generally secured by annual contract with some 
regular physician. Thus provided for — with physical pain as much 
mitigated as is practicable with science, the approach of death is free 
from those thousand anxieties, which beset the mind of the freeman, 
who leaves his children without protection, and that considerate con- 
cern, which the Black well knows, must belong to the relations of 
the slave and master. 

Religious immunities arc also secured to the Carolina slave. 
Independent of the full enjoyment-of the Sabbath, which the law yields 
liini, whenever his tasks have been completed, and these, as will be 
seen, are of easy performance, he is permitted to attend any religious 
meeting properly conducted. Whenever he has been restricted in 
this privilege, the cause can be traced to the impolitic and unwise 



13 

interference of ministers, who have brought him lessons, as incon- 
sistent with their Christian mission, as they have been da:ngerous to 
the quietude of the hearer. If indiscreet or evil men will penetrate 
into a country so situated, and, forgetful of those divine precepts, 
which teach diligence and faithfulness to the slave, and lenity and 
mildness to the master — if, forgetful of such precepts, they will step 
aside from their calling, to interfere 'with the domestic and political 
institutions of a nation, and excite its dependants, and ignorant castes, 
to the bloodiest insurrections, they must expect, not only to lose their 
privilege in this particular, but that the liberty of the slave will be 
abridged. The same conduct, in an European community, among 
freemen, which these teachers have been for years exercising in 
reference to the people of South Carolina, would immediately call 
forth the most rigid interposition of government. It is something 
unreasonable, then, to censure those, who, in placing certain laws in 
their statute books for their protection and safety, have only sought 
to provide for, and to meet, such exigencies. The case is perfectly 
unknown, in Carolina, where, with a judicious teacher and proper 
religious instruction, the slave has been withheld from the full enjoy- 
ment of these immunities. It is to the interest of the master that he 
should be thus instructed, for experience has taught, that religious 
education makes him more honest and faithful -to all the purposes of 
his employer. The impression too, which so many entertain, that the 
slave is excluded from partaking of the same Christian rites with the 
freeman, is grossly unjust, and is abundantly refuted, in the fact, that 
in all our churches, the same communion is indiscriminately adminis- 
tered from the same cup to Black and White alike. In extending our 
remark in this place, we do it with the awkward consciousness, when 
called upon to admit, that it does not unfrequently occur, that, the num- 
ber of the former participants, greatly exceeds that of the latter. 

But it has been urged as a great objection to the Southern system 
of slavery, that the slave is not permitted to receive education, and is 
thus deprived of the means of acquiring for himself a knowledge of the 
Scriptures. If such" an embarrassment could be taken away, without 
bringing with its removal the evils which have so frequently resulted, 
we might be disposed to admit the force of the objection, and to desire 
a relaxation of our laws in this respect. The safety of both parties, 
however, forbids such an indulgence. Whenever extended, the slave 
has been always deluded, and instead of learning to read precepts of 
benevolence and love, the first lessons he has been taught, have been 
those of disaffection and revolt. It is in view of this, that he has been 



14 

denied ariy other than oral instruction. Able and efficient teachers 
are provided him for this purpose. He hears the Bible read, along 
with the VViiit(\s, at every religious meeting, and at stated times and 
places, he is catechised in a manner suited to his capacity. In fact, it 
is as common in Carolina to find the true Christian in the person of the 
slave, as in that of any other class or complexion in the world. 

We shall now briefly conclude tliis appeal, by submitting, whether 
any plan y jt devised can better the present condition of the Carolina 
slave. In making tiiis inquiry, it becomes necessary that we revert to 
the condition of the free coloured persons in the states where they have 
been manumitted. Were it legitimate in this argument to offer our 
own testimony, we should say, that, from acareful observation, and no 
inconsiderable experience, we have nowhere met with a more de- 
graded, profligate, and at the same tim?;, a more unhappy class. But as 
such testimony, coming from us, would seem of very questionable pro- 
priety, we forbear to do more than suggest this particular to the consi- 
deration of all parties, andsliall accordingly proceed to the examination 
of a body of facts and opinions, recently presented to the legislature of 
Connecticut. In a memorial to that enlightened body, and signed by 
a long list of its most distinguished constituents, we are told — "that, 
not a week, hardly a day passes, that they (the free coloured people) 
are not implicated in the violation of some law. Assaults and batteries, 
insolence to the whites, compelling a breach of the peace ; riots in the 
streets, petty thefts, and continual trespasses on property, are such 
common occurrences, resulting from the license they enjoy, that they 
have ceased to become subjects of remark. It is but recently that a. 
band of negroes paraded the streets of New-Haven, armed with clubs, 
pistols and dirks, with the avowed purpose of preventing the law of 
the land from being enforcal against one of the species. Upon being 
accosted by an officer of justice, and commanded to retire peaceably 
to their homes, their only reply consisted of abuse, and threats of per- 
sonal violence. The law was overshadowed ; and the oHicer consulted 
his own safety in a timely retreat."* The memorial then pr'-'Ceeds to 
show that the evil complained of, has so rapidly progress^! that the 
Whites have become the subjects of insult and abuse, whenever they 
have refused to descend to familiarity with them — that themselves, 
their wives and children, hare been driven from the pavements, where 
they have not submitted to personal conflict — tliat from-the licentiousness 



* Memorial to the Legislature of Connecticut, 1334, page 4. 



15 

of their general habits, they have invariably depreciated the value of 
property by their location in its neighbourhood — and, that, from their 
notorious uncleanliness and filth, they have become common nuisances 
to the community. The memorial goes on, and tells us that '* the 
white man cannot labour upon equal terms with the negro. Those who ' 
have just emerged from a state of barbarism or slavery, have few arti- 
ficial wants. Regardless of the decencies of life, and improvident of 
the future, the black can afford his services at a lower price than the 
white man. And as he is, in caste, below the influence of public 
opinion, he seldom hesitates in supplying any contingent wants, without 
the ceremony of contracts, or the efforts of toil. If native indolence 
should deter him from this course, he has no compunctions in supply- 
ing himself from the public storehouse, as a legal pauper. Whenever 
they come into competition, therefore, the white man is deprived of 
employment, or is forced to labour for less than he requires. He is 
compelled to yield the market to the African, and, with his family, ulti- 
mately becomes the tenant of an alms-house, or is driven from the 
state, to seek a better lot in western wilds. Thus, have thousands of 
our most valuable citizens been banished from home and kindred, for 
the accommodation of the most debased race that the civilized world 
has ever seen, and whom the false philanthropy of enthusiasts is hourly 
inviting, to deprive us of the benefits of civilized society." 

This, then, is the picture which the people of Connecticut, hitherto 
the most severe in theu" denunciations agaiiist the slave-holder, present 
of the free coloured population among them. Every observant 
traveller knows it to be correct, while the annual reports of all the 
penitentiaries prove, that the outline in truth comprehends every State 
in which the negro has been manumitted. As a contrast to this state 
of things, take the condition of the Carolina slave. We quote from a 
letter of the late Robert I. Turnbull, Esqr. of South Carolina, pub- 
Ushed in 1822. 

"The condition of our. slaves, witliln the last thirty years, has been 
considerably ameliorated. Their labour has not only been diminished, 
but they have been treated with more Indulgence, and have had more 
attention paid to their comfort and accommodation than formerly. 
The introduction of mills and machinery for pounding and preparing 
the rice for market, which was previously accomplished by manual 
labour, forms a new era in the history of their state of labour. By this 
improvement, the reduction of hard work may be estimated at nearly 
one half, whilst the water culture in the management of the rice, crop, 
practised by many planters, and the substitution of cotton for indigo on 
the high lands, have also greatly contributed to lessen tlieir toil. 

"No culture for our country can be easier than that of the cotton 



16 

plant. With the exception of the second and third hoeings, which 
generally take place in the month of May, there is, comparatively. 
Utile or no labour in attending to the crop, unless there be some defect 
in management ; this sometimes occurs with careless planters, oi with 
those who over- plant. With cotton there is no cutting, or carrying, or 
heavy harvesting. The pods, ripening in succession, and continuing 
for four and five months, make the harvest slow and tedious, but the 
work is light and easy, so much so, that all the pregnant women even, 
on the plantation, and weak and sickly negroes incapable of other 
labour, and all the boys and girls above nine and ten years of age, are 
then in requisition to assist in gathering the wool which hangs from the 
pods. Children are in fact tiie most useful hands at this season. 
From the smallness of their fingers and their low stature, tliey daily 
pick in more than many adults. Nor is the cleaning and preparing 
the crop for market, attended w.th labour. The ginning* of the cotton 
by machines constructed for the purpose, impelled by treadles, would 
to some apix-ai- a laborious employment ; but it is not so, for most able 
bodied negroes would prefer to work at these than to sit down and 
pick the moats from the wool. In short, from the time that the seed 
is put into tlie ground, which is in March, until Christmas when the 
crop is harvested, there is not, with the exception of the second and 
third hoeing, already stated, any hard labour ■performed by our slaves. 

"The mechanics and artizans of l^urope, and of some sections of 
our own country, labour in their employments, not only all day, but 
during part of the night. Our negroes, on the contrary, have their 
tasks allotted to them, and these are so apportioned, that there are few 
who cannot perform them by mid-day, or within an hour or two afterwards. 
No matter what the work is, which a slave is ordered to perform, if 
its nature be sucli as to admit of his being tasked, he works under tliis 
task arrangement and no other ; whether it be listingf of the ground, 
banking, hoeing, thinning of the plants, gathering in of corn or blades, 
or ditching or draining, splitting of rails, making of fences or cutting 
wood ; his work for the day is known to h'm beforehand, long' custom 
having fixed it. It may be easily imagined, that under such an 
arrangement, the slave goes to his work with cheerfulness, beciuise 
whenlie accomplishes it, the rest of the day is at his own disposal, 
which he industriously applies to the cuUivation of his own little gar- 
den or piece of ground allotted to him. It is in the season of co«on 
p«c/tm^ alone, that the slave [ahours {if it can be called labour) from sun- 
rise to sun-set. This is a species of employment, in which 7io task can 
be assigned, for the quantity which a person can gather in a day de- 
pends upon the state of the field, the weather, the warmth or coolness 
of the day, and many other circumstances. At all other seasons of the 
year, upon all well I'egulated plantations, the average tune of labouring 
does not exceed sevenor eight hours in the twcnty-lbur. Tlie working 



* That is separating the wool from the peed. 

f Taking oft" the swani witli a hoc and drawing it togetlicr as a foun- 
dation for a bcil tor llie plant. 



11 

t>{ our slaves by task, as it is called, distinguishes them from the 
labourers of other countries in an especial manner, when it is known, 
that the daily work allotted, is so considerablii icitiun that whicli it is in 
their power to perform. Tliis daily task does not vary accordintj to 
the arbitrary will and caprice of their owners, and although it is not fixed 
by law, it is so well settled by long usage, that upon every plantation 
it is the sa?ne. Should any owner increase the work beyond what is 
customary, he subjects himself to the reproach of his neighbours, and to 
such discontent amongst his slaves as to make them of but little use to 
him. 

The daily tasks are these : 
Cutting fire-wood, ... one cord. 
Splitting rails, . - * . one hundred. 

Sa quarter of an acre, or 105 
feet square, into 21 beds, ^ 
feet apart. 
Breaking or bedding, ... Do. do. 
Hoeing of cotton or corn, . - half an acre. 
Ginning of cotton, ... twenty-five lbs.. clean* 
Moating of do. . - - fifty lbs, clean. 

Ditching ill light land, - . 420 cubic feet. . 

Do. in clay do. . - . 210 do. 
Gathering blades, - - . half an acre. 

Breaking in corn, ready for carting, do. do. 

Digging in potatoes, ... do. do. 

" The subsistence of the slaves consists, from March until August^ 
of corn, ground into grists or meal, which, made into what is called 
iiominy, or baked into corn bread, furnishes a most substantial and 
wholesome food. The other six months they are fed upon the sweet 
potato, which is boiled, baked, or roasted, as their taste or fancy may 
direct. These articles are distributed in weekly allowances, and in 
sufficient quantity, together with a proper allowance of salt. The 
skim milk or clabber of the dairy is divided daily. It would be very 
desirable if regular rations of bacon, or some other animal food could 
be furnished them ; but as this cannot always be practicable, it is diffi- 
cult to make it a matter of permanent regulation. Meat, therefore,' 
when given, is only by way of indulgence or favour. In those sea. 
sons of the year when they are exposed to the most labour, they re. 
ceive bacon, salt fish, and, occasionally, fresh meat. Those who live 
on creeks and rivers, are at no loss for an abundance of fish and oys. 
ters, to say nothing of the little comforts which all negroes have, by 
the raising and sale of their pigs, poultry, &c., which they are per. 
mitted to do. But take their subsistence as it is, without any allow- 
ance of meat, is it not infinitely preferable to the oatmeal of Scotland, 
and the potatoes of Ireland ? — a species of food very inferior to the 
sweet potato of a southern soil. Our negroes could not work if fed 
upon the Irish potato. 

" Their clothing consists of a winter and a summer suit ; the formei' 

3 



18 

of a jacket, waistcoat, and overalls of Welsh plains, and the latttr of 
Osnabur^ or lionK'spun, or other substitutes. They have shoes, hats, 
and haiidkerchicis, and other little articles, such as tobacco, pipes, rum, 
<Scc. Their dwclhngs consist of good clay cabins, with ckiy chim- 
neys ; but so much attention has of late years been paid to their com- 
fort, in this particular, tliat it is now very common, particularly on the 
sea islands, to give them substantial framed houses, on brick founda- 
tions, and with brick chimnrys. Many are of opinion that they enjoy 
more health in o[>cn temporary cabins, with ground or dirt floors ; but 
this does not correspond with the experience of those who willingly 
incur the expense of better buildings. In sickness, they are taken care 
of; and on most plantations there are sick houses, or hospitals, for the 
reception of tliose who do not go out to work — a practice, which it 
would be well if it were more general. When the patient is reallp 
sick, every comfort and attention may be dis[)cnsed by such an insti- 
tution ; whilst to such as enter it only to skulk from labour, (which is 
peculiar to some negroes,) it becomes n. fcnitenliary. 

"To each head of a family is allotted a piece of ground around his 
house, as a garden spot, in addition to which, each labourer has fifty-two 
and a half feet by one hundred and five, set apart for him in the field. 
To some, more is allowed. 

" That the slave? in South-Carolina are luimanely treated, and that 
they are better provided with food and clothing than are the poor in 
most countries, will appear to any impartial observer. No better evi- 
dence need be adduced than their cheerfulness and mirth at all times, 
both in town and country. 

"With all their mirth and merriment, however, they do not seem 
more contented than they were thirty or forty years ago, when the 
discipline was more rigid, their labour more constant, and their com- 
forts fewer. This is undoubtedly owing to a relaxation in discipline, 
which experience abundantly proves has been almost carried too far. 
The regulations that would be applicable to whites entirely fail when 
applied to the government of slaves. The only principle upon which 
any authority over them can be maintained is fear ; and he who denies 
this, has but little knowledge of them. Where there is this principle 
in the bosom of a slave, coupled with a strong sense of his inferiority 
to his master, he is happy and contented, and this is almost universally 
the case with the country Negroes. In his dreams, no visions visit him' 
to remind him of his servitude. Born a slave, he need only be assured 
that he will be well fed and clothed for life, and worked hi moderation, 
and he will regard himself as the happiest of mortals. 

"A proof of the humanity with which these people are treated, is 
their increase by natural population. There is no certainty as to 
what this increase is, because of the iinportation of slaves from Africa, 
until 1808, and tlic emigration into this, from other states. But it is 
believed to be infinitely greater, than the increase amongst the poor in 
any part of Europe. In some parts of the state where the country is 
healthy, there is a duplication every fifteen years. In many, every 
twenty years, whilst in some portions there is but a trifling increase in 
the same period. But this is owing not to any fault in their treatment, 
but to the extreme insalubrity of the air in some portions of the state. 



19 

A reference also to the diseases which afflict our negroes, would show, 
that their food is both more wholesome and more abundant than that 
of the labouring classes in other countries. Dropsies, rickets, scrofula, 
typhus fever, and the long train of diseases which attend upon want and 
poverty, are far less frequent amongst ourslavcs,^than in England, Scot- 
land and Ireland. The diseases most fatal are catarrhs, pleurisies, 
peripneumony, and other diseases of the chest and lungs. These carry 
offnuiwbers of prime negroes, annually, which may be owing to their 
carelessness and hnprudence, and to their propensity to be out at nights, 
visiting the neighbouring plantations. 

"The foregoing remarks are principally applicable to the lower 
parts of South-Carolina, and particularly to the Sea-Islands. The 
treatment of those in the interior and upper country differs no further, 
than that the animal food which they receive may be more liberal ; the 
country affording more facilities in this respect. Upon the whole, I 
think it may be affirmed 2oith the greatest truth, that so intimately blended 
are the considerations of humanity and interest at the present day, that 
few labourers in any part of the world work easier, and have more com. 
fort, and are, ujwn the whole, more contented than our black population ." 

With such evidence before us, what mind, however philanthropic, 
if regulated by common sense, could desire a change from the latter 
to the former. Who would desire that the slave, as he exists in Ca- 
rolina, should become the freeman, as he is found in Connecticut ? — 
His life, limb, property, and reputation protected ; — his religious privi- 
leges secured, in a degree, of freedom, unknown to the lower classes of 
Europe; — provided with food, shelter, and clothing, as certain as the 
revolutions of the seasons ; — in his hours of sickness, attended with 
skilful medical aid ;-^his family supported, without himsell being ha- 
rassed with the cares of their present or future wants, — we are at a 
loss to understand in what his gains of freedom could improve his con- 
dition, or benefit the community. Thus situated, it is difficult for the 
most extravagant liberality to shape out for him a lot more truly allied 
to happiness. In reply to this, it has been contended, that we should 
make the slave the judge of his own condition, and leave him to choose 
between the alternative of freedom and slavery. We object to the 
proposition. That philanthropy, which has now become the ground- 
work of all the boasted' improvements of the age, teaches us, that the 
greatest amount of happiness can only be secured to these people, by 
the exercise, on the part of those having their control, of an enlight- 
ened experience, in selecting for them a condition best adapted to their 
character and necessities. It is manifest that sucli a result can only 
be attained, by contrasting their present with their past circumstances. 
We must bear in mind that the African, in most instances, has been 
brought amongst us, never having known what liberty was. In his 
own country, he is presented to us, living under a 'state of the most 



20 

galling servitude, — considered by his king, or master, as below huma- 
nitVj and treated as a convenience, rather than a creature possessing 
the feelings or the attributes of life. Not an account, which tho mis- 
sionary sends us of iliis ill-fated race, but teems with representations 
of their degradation and suflTorings. Even now, they tell us, that for 
trivial ofTences, these unhappy victims are put to the acutest torments, 
while their scalps and skeletons form the principal ornament8.of the 
palaces of their chiefs. In their native country, this has always been 
their history. Brouglit to our shores, chained and doomed to misery, 
they have risen in condition, and found a better lot ; — they have es- 
caped a fate and danger at home, to which mere slavery, in any shape, 
would seem a blessing in comparison. Nor has their condition simply 
improved in reference to what they themselves were. If we are to 
believe the thousands of Whites exiled from Europe, in which they have 
undergone all manner of privation, the change of the African for the 
better is still more imposing. 

We deny, therefore, that we should make our slaves the arbiters of 
their own prospective happiness. If for no other cause, they are in- 
competent, from the very interposition of which the South so griev- 
ously complains. Their condition has been so misrepresented by those 
having a zeal, for in advance of their ability, tliat they now propose 
to themselves, not merely a simple equality with their white brethren, 
so called, but a state which promises for them a freedom from all re- 
straint, however wholesome and necessary — a state, which could only 
have its existence in the mind of the dreamer or the fanatic. Our 
own political freedom is described to them in exaggerated terms, and 
they are taught to believe themselves born into the same existence 
with ourselves. The Declaration of Independence, which proclaims 
"all men created equal," is continually held up to them as a charter 
of rights, framed for their especial security ; but the lesson, which 
teaches them that the coloured man has ever been excluded from poli- 
tical privileges, has been artfully withheld. They are not informed, 
that in the battles of our revolution they formed no part of the enrol- 
ment of our armies ;— that both before and after our independence, 
they were considered as mere property, '^nd that, even now, tlieir for- 
mer masters of the Northern and Eastern states are seeking of the 
British government, indemnification for their slaves taken in our first war. 
Blinded, as the slave has thus been, it is not strange that he should 
aspire to a grade above his original destination. He sees such a con- 
dition drawn out, and coloured into a picture, which all experience 
teaches to be false ;— one which, in the event of his emancipation, he 




21 

could never realize. In name, it would make him a freeman ; but in 
substance he would remain that most degraded of all beings, — " a mas- 
terless slave." Before, then, we convey to the minds of our slaves 
principles which they are not prepared to comprehend, and a hope that 
can never have fulfilment, the suggestion would seem far more fitting, 
not to say necessary, which would prompt to the due improvement of 
those, already indulged with a much abused and misdirected liberty. 
Never, until they, too, contribute to the formation of public opinion, will 
they be recognised on the same footing with the Whites. Providence 
has stamped the curse of colour upon them ; and that colour, inde- 
pendent of any other influence, will always mark them as inferior and 
distinct from our race. To free them entirely, we must share with 
them society — bring them into the social circle — take them into the 
bosom of our own families, and make them bone of our bone, and flesh 
of our flesh. That this can never be the case, so long as this one ob- 
jection is so grossly offensive to the most ready of our senses, the 
recent excitements, to which we have alluded in a former part of 
our remarks, is, we think, sufficiently convincing. They must re- 
main, as in all times they have been, a separate order from ourselves 
— happy in their sphere — ^tolerated, when not erring ; but victims, when- 
Ver, of their own head, or at the instigation of others, they presume 
madly to shoot out of it. Had not our limits precluded, it was our 
^intention to have entered at large into an examination of the plans of 
the Colonizationists. Affording, as we believe them to do, an excellent 
eck upon the incendiary purposes of their more zealous brethren of 
'he Abolition Society, so long as their expenses are defrayed from out 
of their own pockets, and go to meliorating the condition of the free 
coloured man by transportation, it will be the interest of the South 
rather to advance, than to retard their movements. Even were such 
an idea within the compass of their design, it would be impossible for 
them to procure the entire emancipation of our slaves. With their 
present capital, multiplied by its own numerical amount, they could 
purchase scarcely one third of the yearly increase of the slave popu- 
lation of the south. Under such a condition of things, therefore, we 
have little to apprehend from their plans — which, if they keep within 
the bounds of a wise moderation and frame, according to the true inte- 
rest and safety of all parties, the people of the southern states will be 
the first to appreciate their motives and to aid their undertaking.* 

* See Appendix, III. 



2*i 

We have now gone over, briefly and hurriedly, the propositions with 
which we set out originally. We have performed our task simply, 
and have studiously avoided obscurity and circumlocution. We have 
desired to examine, and not to slur over, the subject of negro slavery » 
particularly as it exists in South Carolina — to look at all its features, 
as tlioy really present themselves, and to set aside those idle anecdotes 
and thousand silly statements, so common among the credulous, and so 
important to the labours and works of the designing. Our purpose is 
truth, and as the slave-owner holds himself to be a man, a social being, 
not to say a Christian, our endeavour has been to mete out to him, that 
justice, which of late days, has been so sternly denied him, by those 
who presume to denounce, before they examine his conduct ; and whose 
designs have been to set the unfortunate victims of their delusive in- 
struction, to the business of midnight butchery, in order to realize an 
abstract principle, the truth of which, no part of the world, barbarous 
or civilized, has yet agreed upon. In their crusade against slavery, 
the Southron who believes himself as strongly provided with humanity 
as any other citizen of the Union, — has been pictured as a monster ex- 
ceeding in atrocious practices, all the worst cruelties of Spartan or 
Roman barbarity. From the alleged enormity of his lifc, he has been 
denied Christian fellowship ; and to such a degree have the asperities 
against him been carried, that men, calling themselves the ambassadors 
of the great Martyr of redeemed man, have pursued his departing soul 
at death, and by a bold assumption of divine intelligence, denied it a hope 
of Heaven. Happily for the Southron, however, this language is held 
only by the fanatic, maddened by the excess of a zeal, wanting as 
much in discretion, as it is destitute of truth. 

It is for the reflecting portion of the people, to whom this appeal has 
been addressed, to silence these clamours ; and, by a due regard to the 
requisitions of society, to put down these miserable follies, and the dis- 
contents and dangers which they must inevitably produce. It is for 
them, in compliance with the professions so repeatedly made, to prove 
their sincerity — not in a silent consciousness of disapprobation, when 
the bigot and the zealot are at work ; but by an open, a fearless, and 
ready, exposition of the sources and character. of the unjustifiable 
slanders which they have heaped upon their neighbours. Evil is, un- 
ha])pily, at all times, the most active principle. Virtue, assured of her 
own motives, is not suspicious of those which prompt to action in others. 
For this reason, she is too apt to repose, when her enemy is busy and 
industrious. It is for her to go to the forum, to the highway and the 
temple, and there stem those propensities, which prompt the responsibla 



25 

professors of a peaceful and gentle faith, to a forgetfulness of their true 
calling. Let her teach them, even as their best policy, towards the 
beings for whom they so profess to labour, that their misguided and 
misdirected zeal, must not only eventuate in ruin to the objects of their 
philanthropy, but must, at the same time, greatly prejudice, if not alto- 
gether restrain, with the class referred to, the otherwise continued cir- 
culation of our common religion. 



A PPENDIX- 



I. 

As recently as 1827, Lord Stowell decided in England, that "a 
slave going to that country, and returning to the West Indies, does not 
become free ; but, being previously considered property, continues such ! 
In this decision, wherein the vv^hole question of slavery was learnedly 
considered, and all the Reports upon the subject reviewed, his Lordship 
remarks : 

"Having adverted to the most of the objections that arise to the re- 
vival of slavery in the colonies, I have first to observe, that it returns 
upon the'slave by the same title by which it grew up originally. It 
never was in Antigua the creature oHaw, but of that custom which ope- 
rates with the force of law; and when it is cried out that malus usus 
abolendus est, it is first to be proved that, even in the consideration of 
England, the use of slavery is there considered as a malus usus in the 
colonies. Is that a malus usus where the Court of the King's Privy 
Council and the Courts of Chancery are every day carrying into full 
effect, in all considerations of property, in the one by appeal, and the 
other by original causes ; and all this enjoined and confirmed by sta- 
tutes? Still less is it to be considered a malus usus in the colonies 
themselves, where it has been incorporated into full life and establish- 
ment ; where it is the system of the state, and of every individual in it ; 
and 50 years have passed without any authorized condemnation of it 
in England as a malus usus in the colonies. The fact is, that in Eng- 
land, where villeinage of both sorts went into total decay, they had 
communication with no other country ; and therefore it is triumphantly 
declared, as I have before observed, "once a freeman, ever a freeman," 
there being no otlier country with which we had immediate connexion : 
in which, at the time of suppression of that system, we had any occa- 
sion to trouble ourselves about. But slavery was a very favoured 
introduction into tiie colonies ; it was deemed a great source of the 
mercantile interest of the country, and was, on that account, largely 
considered by the mother country, as a great source of its wealtii and 
strength. Treaties were made on that account, and the colonies com- 
pelled to submit to those treaties by the authority of this country. 
This system continued entire ; instead of being condemned, as malus 
usus, it was regarded as a most eminent source of its riches and power. 
It was at a late period of the last century it was condemned m Eng- 
Icind as an institution not fit to exist here, for reasons peculiar to our 
own condition; but it has been continued in our colonies, favoured and 



25 

supported by our own courts, which have liberally imparted to it their 
protection and encouragement. To such a system, wliilst it is so sup- 
ported, I rather teel it to be too strong to apply the maxim malus iisus ■ 
abokndas est. The time may come when tliis institution may fall in 
the colonies, as other institutions have done in other flourishing coun- 
tries; but I am of opinion that it can only be etfected at the joint 
expense of both countries ; for it is in a peculiar measure the crime of 
this country, and I rather feel it to be an objection to this species of 
emancipation, that it is intended to be a very cheap measure here, by 
throwing the whole expense upon the colony. It has been said that 
the law of England discourages slavery, and so it certainly does within 
the limits of these islands; but it uses a very different language, and 
exerts a very different force, when it looks to its colonies ; for to this 
trade, m those colonies, it gives almost an unbounded protection, and it 
is in the habit of doing so at the present time in many exercises of pub- 
lie authority ; and even since slavery has become odious in England, 
it has been fully supported by the authority of many statutes, for the 
purpose of carrying it into full effect in the colonies. All the efforts of 
the persons who have contended for its abolition in the colonies, and 
who have obtained many acts of parliament for the regulation of it 
therein, have in no degree weakened the force of these English statutes 
which so powerfully support it in the mother country. It has been 
observed that the sovereign state has declared, that all laws made in 
the colonies, contradicting its own law, shall be null and void, and can- 
not be put in execution ; but is that the character of the laws in the 
■ colonies for the encouragement of the proprietors of slaves ? Has it 
not, since the declaration of its judgment against slavery, declared, in 
the most explicit and authentic manner, its encouragement of slavery 
in its colonial establishments ? Have not innumerable acts passed 
which regulate the condition of slaves, which tend to consider them, as 
the colonists themselves do, as res posita in commercio — as goods and 
chattels — as subject to mortgages — as constituting part of the value of 
the estates — as hable to be taken in execution for debt — to be publicly 
sold for such purposes? and has established courts of its highest juris- 
diction for the carrying into execution provisions for all these purposes ? 
and these its most eminent courts of justice — its Court of King's Privy 
Council, and its Court of Chancery, where all these regulations are 
carried into effect with most scrupulous regularity, and under the au- 
thority of acts of parliament? Can any man doubt that, at this time 
of day, slaves in the colonies may not be transferred by sale made in 
England, and which would be affirmed witliout reference to the court 
so empowered ? And how, under the guaranty of such protection, can 
it be asserted that the law of England does not support, and in a high 
degree favour, the law of slavery in its West India colonies, however 
it may discourage it in the mother country ? Is it not most certain that 
this trade of the colonies has been the very favourite trade of this 
country, and so continues, so far as can be judged of encouragement 
given in various forms — the making of treaties, the institution of com- 
panies, the devolution from one company to another, the compulsion of 
the colonies to accept this traffic, and the recognition of it in a great 

4 



